Brother Alexander Barclay’s Civil War Service…

Let us turn our attention to Alexander Barclay’s Civil War Service record and see if we cannot find any clues to this mystery of which brother “Marched to the Sea’ with General Sherman. I obtained Alex’s Civil War service record from the National Archives before they increased the fee and see the Blogroll to the right for the link.

Fort Snelling 1820-1830

George’s brother Alexander Barclay mustered in to the Civil War at Fort Snelling approximate one year before George.

I visited Fort Snelling near Minneapolis and St. Paul. The photo shows the fort as it was in about 1827, which is 34 years earlier than the Civil War but inside the museum buildings they have maps and pictures that show the fort through the years. It gave me an idea of what it might have been like for both George and Alexander. The Minnesota Historical Society has many historical properties like this that you can visit if you become a member and travel in Minnesota. I have a link under Blogroll to the right for the society.

Alexander’s Civil War Service record was listed under “Barkley.” Alex has 27 cards in his service record.

First page: his “Volunteer Enlistment” in Alabama at Huntsville. Alexander Barkley born in Hartford Co., Connecticut, aged nineteen years, by occupation a soldier do hereby acknowledge to have volunteered this first day of January 1864 to serve as a Soldier in the Army of the United States of America for the period of 3 years….sworn and subscribed to at Huntsville, Ala. this 1st day of January, 1864 before Wm. T. [Killbridge], Reg’t 4th Minn., signed Alexander Barkley. Examined by E. W. Cross, 4th Minn. Vol. Inft. Examing Surgeon..the soldier has hazel eyes, light hair, light complexion, is 5 ft, 3-1/2 inches high. [James C. Edson, Cprt. 4th Reg. of Minn. Voltrs. Mustered into service…C. 4th Reg. of Minnesota Vol. on the first day of January, 1864, at Huntsville, Alabama, [ ] W. Osborne, Capt. 12th Infantry, A.C. M. 3rd Div. 15th Army Corps.

The second page was the “Declaration of the Recruit” which repeats much of the same information listed above.

Note: Brackets indicate that I cannot read the writing and I am guessing.

There is nothing in Alexander’s Civil War Service record that states anything unusual about his service other than he re-enlisted at the end of 1864 and was promoted to Corporal about the time of Sherman’s march. The spelling of the Barclay name as “Barkley” means that Alex used a different version than his brother George.

In the next post we will examine the events of Co. C, 4th Reg’t of the Minnesota Infantry and we will discover some very interesting information!

Things to Ponder

The header photo of the Mississippi River near Brainerd and the headwaters of the river. From the Minnesota Nature Conservancy Website.

Leola May Blinn may be the daughter of Sarah A. Blinn a sister of George and Alexander. I have added new information as of 6/10/2016 to the post about another of Alexander's siblings. Just put Leola into the search engine and you should find the information.

Table of content pages have been added to the top of this blog. Each page covers a family grouping and the posts published on this blog about that family and other blogs that I write on. HOVER over the titles at the top of this page and other pages titles will drop down. 1/22/2016

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